‘The Japanese leader bungled the word for “frequent,” calling Japan-China exchanges “cumbersome” instead. Another time, he misread the word “toshu” (follow), saying “fushu” — or stench — and sounded as if he were saying government policy “stinks.”‘

As a result, people are rushing buy books and brush up on their reading skills. And in a language with thousands upon thousands of characters, this is no easy task.